Conventional systems and techniques exist for securing individual communications between two or more entities exchanging such communications. Particularly, in the realm of digital communications, it is often highly likely that a communication can potentially be intercepted or otherwise illicitly obtained by a recipient who is not an intended recipient thereof. Such messages must therefore be secured, so that the unintended recipient will be unable to inspect or alter message content contained therein.
For example, a message to be sent from a transmitting entity to a receiving entity may be encoded in a manner which attempts to ensure that only the intended recipient(s) will be able to decode the message and obtain the message content therein. Thus, even if the encoded message is transmitted in a manner that is accessible to unintended recipients (e.g., is sent over the public Internet), the unintended recipients will be unable to obtain or alter the actual message content being communicated. The many known techniques for implementing public/private key cryptography provide specific examples of such scenarios, and other examples are also known.
In many scenarios, however, it is difficult or impossible for a third party to verify successful completion of such secure communications, or aspects thereof. Consequently, in scenarios in which such third-party verification would be necessary or helpful, undesirable levels of cost and effort must be expended, or the desired verification may have to be abandoned entirely, or may not be sufficiently reliable. In such scenarios, then, profits and efficiencies may be reduced, and message security may be compromised.